Robin Wright demanded equal pay to Kevin Spacey for 'House of Cards'

By Sarah Walker

January 18, 2017

Robin Wright is
the latest in a long line of actresses who have had to demand that they
receive the same pay as their male co-stars. On Tuesday (May 17), the
House of Cards star told attendees at the Rockefeller Foundation that she had to demand the same salary as Kevin Spacey, who plays her husband on the wildly popular Netflix series. She even threatened to "go public" if her demands weren't met.

“I was like, ‘I
want to be paid the same as Kevin,'" the 50-year-old told the
publication. “I was looking at the statistics and Claire Underwood’s
character was more popular than (Frank’s) for a period of time. So I
capitalized on it. I was like, ‘You better pay me or I’m going to go
public.' And they did. One imagines they responded with an appropriate
'as you wish.'”

In addition to her acting duties,
The Princess Bride icon occasionally serves as one of the show's producers and directors.

In 2014,
Business Insider reported that Kevin, 56, made $500,000 per episode, while Forbes deemed Robin's rate somewhere around $420,000. It's believed that she received her "pay raise" in the last 12 months.

Though there was a
salary dispute, the mom to two went on to praise the show's creators
for crafting such a strong female character.

Robin Wright and Kevin Spacey co-star on the Netflix series.

“There are very few films or TV shows where the male, the patriarch, and the matriarch are equal. And they are in
House of Cards.”

Other actresses
who have had to battle producers for equal pay for their work include
Jennifer Lawrence, Lena Dunham and Patricia Arquette. Most famously, the
latter spoke out about Hollywood's pay inequality at the Oscars in
2015.

“To every woman
who gave birth, to every taxpayer and citizen of this nation, we have
fought for everybody else’s equal rights. It’s time to have wage
equality once and for all. And equal rights for women in the United
States of America.”

The speech was so
impassioned that
Meryl Streep, who has also spoken out about how the pay
gap has affected her, was snapped vigorously applauding Patricia.